Do I Suspect Medical Negligence? You Bet!
Do you all remember when I was in the hospital for the entire month of December? Well, today, I would like to ‘clue’ you in on some of the things that happened to me while I was hospitalized.
As most of you know, I suffer from a rare genetic disease called Porphyria. This disease is hard to treat and there is no cure. The disease flares up for me about twice a year, which usually lands me in the hospital. During these “flare ups” I suffer with uncontrollable abdominal pain, back pain, leg pain, nausea and vomiting! It’s 100% miserable when it flares up!
Anyway, while I was in the hospital I rang for the nurse to get some pain medication. After about 10 minutes, she comes in and injects pain medication into my IV. I then asked her to take me to the bathroom which she did. Now here is the problem:
She put me onto the toilet after being heavily medicated and left the room. Within one minute of her leaving me alone in the bathroom, I was on the floor and unconscious! Three hours later when I finally woke up, I was back in my hospital bed but very confused on what had happened.
Once I was stable…they hauled me off for a CT scan, an MRI scan and several X-rays to see if they could “find” out what happened. Well, I am pretty sure I know what happened because this type of medical negligence has happened to me before. Here is what I think:
About five years earlier I was over-dosed with narcotics by a hospital nurse who gave me twice the amount I was supposed to have. I remember falling onto the floor and being unconscious for several hours. In this case, that nurse admitted her mistake and they realized that she had given me 30 mgs. of the medication, instead of 15 mgs.
This time around…I am almost 100% sure that the same thing happened but with a different nurse. I was supposed to get 8 mgs. of the pain medication but all 15 mgs. of it was missing from the multi-dose vial.
With that said…the hospital and nurse is denying that this has happened and that it was just a “fluke” that I had a seizure and hit the floor. Right….like I buy that!
The moral of this story is this…If at any time you suspect medical negligence you need to retain an attorney immediately! Look for a professional with a good reputation like Irwin Mitchell or someone who specializes in these type of cases. Do not sign any papers that the hospital may hand you without FIRST consulting an attorney!
Well there you have it…my piece of medical and legal advice for today! Luckily for me, I have no permanent effects from their negligent mistake!